A short boarding video from an American Airlines flight captures two things at once: a flight attendant sees a phone aimed at a woman in front of the camera and quickly checks whether the pair are traveling together, defusing what looks like a potentially creepy situation. But the same clip also fuels the familiar complaint about American’s onboard culture — the front-galley posture and tone read as “couldn’t care less,” even while she’s trying to do something genuinely situationally aware.
- A passenger is walking behind his wife, and a flight attendant at the front galley notices his phone is pointed at her backside.
- The crewmember asks the woman “are you two traveling together?”
- Once she confirms yes, she smooths it over with a line about “matching outfits,” that either either they were together, or randomly wearing similar clothes.
That’s the cover story for a fast safety check on a potentially creepy situation.
Look at both the attendants body posture there. No way they are even thinking of warm hospitality. Get ready to be looked down upon. pic.twitter.com/VtIJdaXDfe
— Janet™ (@Janet_sm145) March 3, 2026
There are basically see two big takes on what happened here.
- The flight attendant was alert and doing her job. The camera angle looks like a stranger filming the woman ahead of him. It’s creepy, and the flight attendant is proactive.
- But the flight attendants in the galley evince an unprofessional, ‘could’t care less’ boarding vibe. Coffee in hand, hand-in-pocket, the male crew member is totally disengaged with a look of judgment and disdain.
Flight attendants receive quick training on human trafficking. They think they’re experts, and usually just wind up using their prejudices.
Nonetheless, this video fuels the stereotype of American Airlines cabin crew. Broadly speaking, Asian carriers offer great service. You’ll get good crews from the Mideast. European legacy airline crews are more formal and polished than U.S. crews. And within the U.S.
- American Airlines flight attendants are the most likely to hate their jobs
- Southwest Airlines flight attendants have fun at work (though this has seemed less true, even before the recent cultural evisceration at the airline)
- Delta crew are proud of their airline and offer marginally better service
- Spirit crew are very informal, not pretending to offer polished service, but also come across as somehow honest
These are broad generalizations. I’ve had absolutely fantastic American Airlines crew and lousy Delta ones, and lackluster ones on Emirates too.
But culture, training and standards play a strong role. Southwest selects for personality, Singapore Airlines training is incredible, and Delta’s marketing gives flight attendants a story to be proud of (reinforced each Valentine’s Day profit sharing day).
So these passengers caught a fascinating interaction on numerous levels, without even realizing what had happened.
I can guarantee even the most lackluster Emirates crew won’t be standing at the door holding a Starbucks, while passengers are boarding. I doubt you’d see that on ANY airline anywhere outside of ‘Murica.
Gary, the Wall Street Journal today has a front page article “Airfares have doubled on some flights. The sticker shock for spring travel is upon us.” Yet you have not addressed the rapidly rising air fares at all. Isn’t that story more important than someone taking a picture on an airplane and the other fluff you’ve been running lately?
@Andrew — This is View from the (right) Wing, after all, so what do you expect? (Gary be like; “Everything’s fine! Nothing to see here! *scrapes bottom of the barrel from Reddit/Twitter* Let’s punch-down on workers and leftists!”)
For broad generalizations, they sure are accurate! The customer service (or lack thereof) culture at AA almost seems hopelessly broken. Even the CK services seem halfhearted these days.
My question is this: what exactly will it take for a management and governance revolution? How far does it ultimately have to go?